Nature has been critically impacted by the economics of humanity. Once teeming, animals, fish, birds, trees and insects, proliferated through vast source communities now permanently altered. Many of these communities have been converted into ‘banked’ assets through the construct of capitalism, succumbing to industrial harvest. Many others are simply lost collateral. This collateral damage to the biodiversity of our planet has never been factored into the real cost, the true value of loss in its totality. This loss of natural industry – is immeasurable.
A small group of entrepreneurs has started to change this by converting a unit of Nature into a value of currency. A process has been proposed to introduce Nature to the human design of wealth creation and alter the path of our capital and monetary system to address the immediate need for a solution in the 21st century.
Understanding the immediate urgency requires us to pivot the system – In this moment.
Looking back at other times when the capital system has altered substantially, recall a time when labour could be owned. Individuals could invest in the stock markets of Europe and America and benefit from the transportation and sale, the profits, of human bondage. When human bondage as a tool for industry was removed from the system, labour became a unit cost in the system, and a way of creating wealth for each person. This marked a major expansion in global banking and financial industry. Unfortunately, nature in 2024 still remains in this same relationship with the capital system. In fact live species of plant, trees, fish, and animal have their participation in the natural system ignored and instead are only converted to wealth in our system when that life is taken. The death of the plant or animal is required to provide value to the capital market – ie. to be converted into a unit of fiat currency. The collateral damage to remove and convert the desired natural asset into wealth is not measured in the cost/value equation, nor the cost of a lost forest to the life of our planet. This ‘cost’ to civilization – is immeasurable. We propose a new mechanism in what we have named the “dead to market” system, to immediately introduce a unit of biodiversity into the financial accounting representing the true value of nature to the planet.
Big Tree introduces a way to account for this – for Nature in its original form – to become an asset class – represented by the emerging virtual capital markets. To insure that the totality of a hectare of unspoiled biodiversity – insect, plant, soil, water, the impact of resident and transient birds and animals – all can be represented and accounted for.
Whether we are extracting the energy stored beneath the earth from the past lives of plants and animals in oil – or harvesting the existing source energy in forests, fish and animals – the relationship of the sun’s energy to the earth is being converted into commodities and from commodities to currency. This drawdown on Nature’s account without regard for the balance sheet is most certainly a short sighted failing of human understanding.
At Big Tree, we believe it is time to recognize our responsible place in nature. Time to steward and balance the assets we utilize by adapting our economic systems. Time to maintain a healthy financial existence.
To illustrate the immediate need to alter the capital system we present our ‘Dasgupta Equation’ – presume the earth/sun relationship (industry) generates 365 units a year -(paraphrasing the findings of ‘The Dasgupta Review – The Economics of Biodiversity’ written in 2019) – human industry is now consuming 1.7 units daily.
To Repeat – the current consumption ratio:
1 unit of natural regeneration to 1.7 units of human consumption daily.
Obviously this is unsustainable.
Biomass requires a healthy ‘source community’ to proliferate – yet we have continued a daily compounding loss of species on an industrial scale since the end of the civil war and the start of the buffalo wars – we have reduced the core biomass source communities to a state of crisis.
Big Tree introduces an accounting ledger based on an immediate global necessity to value Nature – dubbed – The Infinity Loop – an accounting system that introduces ‘coin based’ stewardship of the earth’s remaining intact (pristine) biodiversity – a means of financial exchange that is based on the health of the planet and not its imminent demise.
Imagine buying a Ford pickup truck and the salesperson asks if you will be paying in Biodiversity coin? A preferred currency backed by the preservation of the planet. A discount over an industrial backed fiat currency – 10% off your next purchase.
Ontario has potential for over 30,000,000 hectares of annual natural asset regeneration or ‘Primary’ biodiversity. The stewardship of these assets monetizes in an annual currency at $30,000,000,000 ($30 billion) per year based on an initial realistic valuation of $1000/hectare.
Under the 20 year project ‘life to renewal’ mandate with the First Nations – this entire project represents well under $1 trillion dollars over 20 years – the cost to the purchasing public is $600 Billion over the 20 year project life – with the exchange value of the units to be bought and sold through a natural asset currency exchange.
Every 20 years the contract is renewed and the base price is established to ‘price’ the next 20 years – continuing the representation of nature and the future of the remaining established Primary units of biodiversity – this upgrades our human economic construct respecting our need to manage capitalism to the health of the planet – most critical to our survival – and the responsibility of our economic system, to respect and benefit all other species.
The economic benefits to the First Nations, Ontario, and Canada will be substantial and the benefit to the other species and ourselves will be immeasurable. This action is required to be taken immediately, for the future and a healthy planet.
Please, help us to implement The Big Tree model,
Miigwech,
Ian A. Brodie-Brown